I had to pack light on my journey home for the holidays. I find it easier to get things done when there isn’t much choice around to distract my focus. I brought with me a single moleskin which I had been doodling in throughout the semester and have decided to rework the pen doodles I’ve scribbled down throughout the pages. This way I have a plan to stick to, no matter the quality of the work. In the end I want to find a way to make something out of each one, even if the page was used up by just a word.

During my holidays I want to play around with outlines of my favourite things and shapes to create minimalistic patterns. I needed a break from conceptualizing everything and just draw a thing or two purely for the fun and aesthetic of it. This is the first two I’ve made in a hopefully ever growing series. See Gulls was inspired by a photo that I took on the coast of Morocco of a huge flock of birds trying to catch their supper. There were so many in fact, that they practically covered up the ocean that flowed behind them. It’s a vivid memory that I will always love. I plan on printing this series on a long thin strip of paper and then block printing the original photo atop different segments of the pattern.

Not every thought or word we think of will make it to the top of our minds and seep into the world around us. There’s so many obstacles within us that create stops along the way that give us time to second guess ourselves. Once we do, we swallow our imagination making it difficult to recollect the ideas we’ve since lost. If only there was a way to make this journey easier and more direct. A way to express without an off ramp.

If only we could predict when we’re all going to crash and burn. That way we could stain the world with the footprint we choose to leave behind.

I decided to revise this old drawing and give it a bit more detail. I made this after seeing a mosquito that had been freshly smeared across a white wall. A complete track detailing it’s time of death. The exact spot it was hit and then the spot that it was left to die. We all despise being bitten, me included, but I guess seeing this made me see it differently. I felt bad, I saw it as a life ended as opposed to a pest I wanted to get rid of. Was the blood on the wall mine? Was it the blood of multiple people? Where did the mosquito come from and how long was it alive? I had questions about when it was alive, because I knew how it died.

As seen from left to right – A stick mirror reflecting a stick self of a stick dad next to some stick art made by a stick kid hung above a stick floor stood upon by two giant stick twins standing in a stick corner.

Here’s a drawing I did a couple months ago while trying out different materials and digital apps. I’m slowly learning to mix my materials more often. With this drawing I thought it’d be fun playing with irony and the idea of fast food and it’s detrimental effects on the body. What if it benefited us in the same way that it’s described, lending us a boost of speed for example. I Would love to keep playing with this style/idea and expand it into a series or comic one day.

Growing up, I remember walking down to a park which had one of those rickety old wooden gyms in it. A park, which at least by appearance, seemed to have been there since the 1930’s. This was no Muscle Beach, just a couple of makeshift wooden seats and rusty bars which were most likely used more by kids to hang off of, then by actual adults counting reps. The thing that struck me most though were these simple yet confusing signs describing how one was meant to use the devices. These images were something I never really understood and still don’t, constantly asking myself “am I doing this right?” or “should this hurt more or less?”. Although it was probably less of an image issue and more of an overthinking problem on my end. I should have listened to my hypothetical fitness idol Arnold who said:

“The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.”- Arnold Schwarzenegger

Great advice, until you realize that you can’t fly, shoot laser beams or grow a second set of arms. Anyways I have always wished that I could be more attracted to working out and to push myself to be in better shape. So, I’ve drawn a series of work out instructions which involve absolutely no effort at all and that anyone can do, but just like the ones I saw at the park years ago, don’t expect any results, especially with the spin and twirl. Enjoy!